We got up and out quickly, and went downtown Akureyri. After some parking confusion (you buy a cardboard clock from the bank, then set the clock to when you left the car. You then have one hour from the set time until you have to leave... try figuring THAT out in Icelandic).
The downtown, like every Icelandic town we saw, was cute, quaint and pretty.
We found a bakery and got some pastries for breakfast. They were very delicious, and I liked the way they filled each bag with air as they sealed it so your buns don't get crushed.
There wasn't a lot to do, so we did some stupid stuff. Like posing with statues and helping little girls feed a massive amount of ducks and geese.
After that excitement, we figured we milked all that Akureyri had to offer. On the road we stopped at some totally ancient castle grounds. So ancient that nothing was really left.
We stopped at a gas station/restaurant and ate hamburgers and hot dogs... again. At this point, we were getting a little tired of hamburgers and hot dogs, but there's never anything else to eat when you're on the road (also, all the hot dogs and hamburgers are basically the exact same, right down to the cocktail sauce they throw on the burgers).
Eventually we stumbled upon Glaumbær, an old, Viking Longhouse. Before we even know what we were going to see, we found some weird, melty-looking mushrooms.
Glaumbær was pretty neat. The houses are just thin, wood frames, basically, which are covered in earth. So they're a hobbit house, basically. And they're about as tiny as hobbit houses.
All the rooms and compartments are connect by an underground hallway. It's actually pretty massive, with about 10 separate living and working spaces. There are windows near the ceiling that allow light in. The only light source in these photos is the sun, amazingly enough.
After leaving, we headed up the Vatnsnes Peninsula. The first stop was Hvitserkur, a strange rock formation coming out of the ocean. It's believed to be a troll that was turned to stone when it was caught outside when the sun rose. Most major rock formations were associated with troll legends.
We continued up the coast jumping out here and there to see what was around. Tell me this photo doesn't look like a miniature... Crazy.
The Vatnsnes Peninsula is home to one of the largest seal colonies in Iceland. We didn't know what time of the year they would be around, but we were hoping we'd catch sight of something. We found the tip of the Peninsula where the seal colony stayed. There was a farmhouse there, but the farmer allowed tourist to access his land for seal watching.
It took some hiking and hunting, but we did find some sleeping among the rocks. They were hard to see, and not doing much but lying around, but at least we found some.
If you squint you can see them...
After our seal-finding mission was over, we stopped in a tiny town to get some food and figure out where we were going to stay for the night. We got a pizza. Which wasn't too bad.
We decided to try to make it to Stykkishólmur, which was kind of far away. We knew we would be driving late into the night, but it would make the following days drive less stressful.
It was a long and dark drive to Stykkishólmur, and the since the sun stays low in the sky this time of year in Iceland, and the sunsets last for hours, I had to drive into a low hanging sun most of the way.
We got into Stykkishólmur sometime after midnight, got some gas and found our hotel. It was a really nice hotel, so it's a shame we couldn't have taken advantage of it. I wanted to get some long-exposure shots of the town before bed. So Lindsay humored me and sat outside for a bit before we crashed.
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